Dracula’s Castle – GC5D8 – GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK – November 29, 2012

The Geocache of the Week takes us to a place with beautiful views of the countryside, the Carpathian Mountains, and Dracula’s Castle. That’s right, Dracula’s Castle (GC5D8).

The castle is not only a national monument and landmark in Romania, but home to the country’s oldest published geocache.

Over the centuries, Dracula’s Castle, a.k.a. Bran Castle has been used in defense against the Ottoman Empire, served as a customs point, and has housed a number of residents, including Queen Marie (and let’s not forget Bram Stoker’s Dracula). It is now a museum, displaying art and furniture collected by the queen.

The cache owner, Team Romania (now maintained by DJ Storm) was kind enough to include a few essentials, such as a large pencil that could be used as a wooden stake to ward off vampires. Over the years, geocachers have created their own weapons against Dracula when setting out to find this cache. Recently, a hand-made cross was spotted at a “grave” site near the cache.

A very curious local

Locals and cachers from a number of nearby countries and across the seas have traveled far and wide to visit the castle and log the cache.

A geocacher from the UK writes, “What a climb! Totally worth the effort though… Not only did I escape the crowds for half an hour, but I was rewarded with the most spectacular view to the mountains and beyond. Nice, clean, and well maintained cache. Great to bag Romania’s first geocache as well. Over 10 years old and long may it live. I was a bit skeptical about the ‘grave’ nearby, marked with a cross. But now I understand! …Brilliant. TNLNSL [Took Nothing Left Nothing Signed Log]. Thanks for hiding and greetings from the UK.”

Continue to explore some of the most engaging geocaches around the globe. Check out all the Geocaches of the Week on the Latitude 47 blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, send an email with your name, comments, the name of the geocache, and the GC code to pr@groundspeak.com.